


Meeting in a Basement

by LadyAnneNeville



Series: Tony learns how to Parent Peter [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Peter Parker, Chronic Pain, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Peter, Hurt Rhodey, Kidnapping, Protective Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 14:17:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14594820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAnneNeville/pseuds/LadyAnneNeville
Summary: Peter Parker is kidnapped by unknown assailants. When he finds himself in a basement with no memory of how he got there with a stranger, he has to find a way to rescue himself, while a worried Tony Stark is trying to rescue his Spider-Son.





	Meeting in a Basement

**Author's Note:**

> This continues in my series which is slightly alternate universe, however the story can be read individually. I made one small change to canon, and that is that Tony has chosen to make Peter his heir, and for reasons both legal and emotional, has adopted Peter to help make this possible. Peter is still living with Aunt May and she is still an important parental figure for him, although she doesn't really appear in this particular story, she is important in other stories in the series. Enjoy and please comment and let me know what you think.

When Peter woke up he was confused, the fear would come later, initially he was just really confused. His wrists were bound in front of him with a zip-tie, weird, because if anyone had taken him for being Spider-Man, he was pretty sure he would have been bound with something stronger than a zip-tie he could break in seconds if he wanted to. For now he left it in place and sat up slowly. From the slight nausea and already lessening headache he worked out that he had been drugged, which was bad because he would metabolise drugs a lot faster than whoever had taken him would have expected him to, which could give him away.

The room he was in was probably a basement, there were no windows, but other than that it was bare, completely bare. Concrete floor, white plastered walls, the door didn’t even have a handle on it, it was bizarre. Well not completely bare, a slim black man dressed in casual clothes was similarly bound to himself and was lying unconscious on the floor. He looked vaguely familiar but Peter could not think where he had seen him before.

He couldn’t see a camera in the room, so decided to risk it, crawling over to the man. 

“Um, sir.” He tried, wincing as his voice cracked. Now he realised how thirsty he was, he really needed some water. “Sir, you need to wake up.” If only Peter could remember what had happened just before he’d been taken, at least then he might be able to understand if this guy was a civilian or if he’d gotten in the way or at least some variation on why or who had taken them. In either order, he just needed some answers. 

Time to try again, this time Peter reached out with his bound hands to shake the man lightly by his shoulder. “Sir, please wake up.” It was now that the fear started to creep in, on his own he was pretty confident he could escape, even without his webshooters, these people didn’t seem to realise that he was Spider-Man, but he wasn’t willing to risk a civilian, especially an unconscious civilian, and he couldn’t just leave the man here. “Sir, wake up!” To Peter’s mortification, as he tried to wake the man his voice squeaked briefly into his prepubescent range, but there was no time to dwell on that as the man finally started to stir.

“Argh, my head.” He moaned, scrunching his face up, before squinting at Peter. “What’s going on?” The man didn’t seem one hundred percent awake yet. 

“I think they drugged us, and we’ve been kidnapped I think. Or at lease I woke up with no memory of how I got here, and our shoes are missing and we’re tied up and I’m pretty sure we were drugged, oh wait I said that already.” Peter said, he was so glad the man was awake. The man in question moved to wave a hand at Peter as if to say slow down, only to squint down at his wrists as he realised they were bound together.

“What’s your name?” Peter asked. The man squinted at Peter, took in his bound wrists and seemed to consider it for a minute before replying.

“James Rhodes, what’s yours.” He said finally, also looking a lot more awake.

“Wait you’re Colonel Rhodes, as in War Machine, you’re Rhodey, Tony talks about you all the time, oh sorry, I don’t know if I was supposed to say that I’m…”

“You’re Peter.” Rhodey cut him off.

“Yes, how did you know?” Peter replied.

“I’m not the only one Tony talks about all the time. Did you really think he’d adopt a teenager without telling his best friend. Besides you knew my nickname was Rhodey, which is not public knowledge, you called me War Machine rather than Iron Patriot, which speaks of Tony’s influence, and I’m pretty sure Tony only chooses to spend time with one teenager.”

“Oh right.” Peter was embarrassed. “Sorry I didn’t work out who you were.” He offered.

Rhodes chuckled slightly before shifting himself into a seated position, wincing slightly at the pain the motion caused, dragging his legs around. “Don’t worry about it, I was unconscious, and you just gave away a lot about yourself. Maybe watch that mouth of yours, especially as you’ve just been kidnapped, you don’t want to give too much away.”

“Do you think that’s why they kidnapped us, for information about Tony?” Peter asked.

“More likely to try and leverage Tony into doing something against his will, which will of course backfire on them when Tony works out where we are, but you need to get back to a no doubt very worried Aunt and you really don’t need to be missing school, so you need to try and escape, Spider-Man.”

“How did you?” Peter asked again, constantly feeling as though he was on the back foot.

“We’ve met before, remember, in Germany. And you have a pretty distinctive voice, that and Tony suddenly showing interest in a teenager and it wasn’t that hard to put two and two together. You’re enhanced right, so you should be able to escape this place easily and come back with help. They don’t even have a camera on us so as efficiently as they managed to grab us, overall we’re probably dealing with amateurs.”

“But what about you.” Peter asked. “I can’t just leave you here, even if they’re amateurs like you say they could still hurt you really badly before I get back. We should escape together.”

“Peter, I can’t walk.” Rhodey informed him gently.

“Are you hurt, why didn’t you say they’d hurt you?” Peter asked.

“Peter, calm down. They didn’t hurt me, I was hurt in the airport battle, remember.”

“Yes, but Mr Stark said he was going to fix it.” Peter’s faith in Tony was so complete that Rhodey hated to break some of the illusion. Tony was a great man, but he wasn’t God, and he was flawed, deeply in some places. And despite his immense ability and presence, he also had a huge guilt complex and the hero worship Peter had for him was probably very helpful in helping him find his own worth again.

“He did, Peter. He fixed it to the best of his ability with technology. He made me an incredible set of subtle braces which enable me to walk and run and do much of what I could do before, but he can’t fix paralysis. I had a lacerated spinal chord, I’m paralysed from the waist down and will be for the rest of my life. Whoever kidnapped me, took those braces away, so I can’t walk, I would only slow you down, so you need to go, and get help. We don’t even know where in the world we are right now, we could be in another country for all you know, so the sooner you get help, the sooner we can all go home. I’m counting on you Spider-Man, go be a hero.” Rhodey said, having some courage as his words hit home.

“Okay, ‘kay, I’m Spider-Man.”

“Yes you are, but don’t tell them that.”

“I’m going to get help, but I will be back as soon as I can, I promise Colonel Rhodes.” Peter was earnest and determined and innocent.

“You do that, I trust you Peter.” Rhodey reassured the boy. How could this kid possibly be nearly sixteen, he looked about thirteen.

Peter snapped his zip ties with an ease that reminded Rhodey uncomfortably of Steve, then quickly snapped Rhodey’s, before prying the reinforced steel door open with his bare hands and without even breaking a sweat. He gave Rhodey a quick nod and then he was gone.

Rhodey allowed himself to flop back onto the ground and process his guilt. He remembered the earful he had given Tony about how young Spider-Man was when he had first found out he was still in school. He had been furious with his friend for being so irresponsible and encouraging the kid, and here he was doing exactly the same just to save himself. He barely knew the situation, for all he knew there could be mercenaries waiting to kill Peter the moment he got out, but then again the plan could have been to torture Peter to make Tony give in.

How could he allow his best friends kid to go into such danger. Rhodey had been looking forward to meeting Peter, but he had never imagined that it would be under these circumstances. Tony clearly thought the world of Peter and loved him like a son, which essentially made Peter Rhodey’s nephew, and here Rhodey was, being the worst possibly adult, sending him into danger.

The truth was he didn’t see any other option, but if anything happened to Peter, anything at all while he was in Rhodey’s care, Rhodey honestly didn’t believe Tony would ever forgive him.

It was with this depressing thought that Rhodey settled in to wait, not really prepared to deal with the hours ahead of him of being helpless and hoping that Peter had got out okay. Only for the door to swing open.

“Kid, I told you to get out.”

“Rhodey, you won’t believe what just happened, it was so lucky. So I got out, and there was no one immediately outside, so I got upstairs, and there was an open window, so I was going to just go, but then I heard voices, and I thought if I could take the bad guys out then they wouldn’t hurt you, so I crawled in on the ceiling and there they were, all three of them, video calling Tony. I think it was some kind of ransom video, and they clearly expected us still to be asleep. But anyway I was on the ceiling, then I waited until I was right above them and then I dropped down, and knocked two of them out, then tied the other one up with zip ties. Tony looked kind of irritated with me, but he said it was an encrypted connection so he told me to open up a call to FRIDAY on one of their cell phones, which I did, so he had the location, then he sent me down here to get you. So you need to come upstairs now, Tony says he’s on his way.”

Peter spoke so fast Rhodey had to pause for a moment to process what had been said. 

“So the bad guys are incapacitated.”

“Yep.”

“And Tony’s on a video call upstairs.”

“Yep.”

“Kid, in case you’ve forgotten, I still don’t have my braces, I have no way to get upstairs.” Rhodey hadn’t felt this bad about his injury since it first happened.

“Oh right. I thought, with your permission, I could carry you upstairs, as their right outside the door, then I left a computer chair at the top so I could wheel you into the room Tony’s linked to. Sorry, I know it isn’t ideal, but I couldn’t think of any other way.” Peter looked so anxious to please, that even though Rhodey hated the idea of being carried, he agreed.

“Okay kid, let’s go.” Peter’s face morphed from determined anxiety to complete surprise.

“Really.” He asked.

“Really, now chop chop, we don’t want to keep Tony waiting.” Rhodey said. Unfortunately Peter took Rhodey a little too literally. After carefully lifting the man with an arm around his back and an arm under his knees, with Rhodey anchoring himself by holding onto the kids shoulders, Peter then jogged up the stairs, two at a time, before depositing Rhodey carefully in the waiting computer chair at the top. The kid had probably intended to make it quick and painless, but the swift movement jarred the injury on his back and he ended up aching and nauseous by the time he arrived in a room with Tony’s face, as he appears when he’s in the Iron Man helmet, displayed on a laptop.

“Platypus, how did you, seasoned soldier that you are, manage to get yourself kidnapped with my young protégé.” Tony asked.

“If I could remember I would tell you.” A flicker of guilt crossed Tony’s face.

“I’ll be with you in about ten minutes. We have CCTV footage of both grabs, both separate grabs by the way, first you, then the kid a few hours later. The grabs were professional, but little to no effort had been made to hide their tracks. I could have broken through the encryption hiding the video feed in about five minutes, the only reason I got the kid to open another line on their phones was to speed things up.”

“Where are we, and how long have we been gone?” Peter asked.

“You’re in Canada, in the outskirts of some town no one can be bothered to remember the name of. It’s about four hours after Peter was grabbed. They must have had a plane ready and taken you straight there. There was a Stark Industries jet in Toronto, which is on it’s way. Pepper’s there for a meeting, as soon as I knew you guys were okay and uninjured I arranged for her to get straight in the plane when she finished and she’ll meet us soon.”

“So, is there any way we can not tell Aunt May about this.” Peter asked.

“Sorry kid, as soon as Karen sent out an alert…”

“Wait Karen sent out an alert?”

“What did you expect her to do, the suit was in your backpack and you were being kidnapped.”

“How did she know?” Peter asked.

“There are protocols and alerts built in for exactly this purpose.” Tony said.

“So you expected me to be kidnapped.” Peter asked.

“No, but you’re a vigilante, and in your civilian life, anyone who looks closely enough can see how much you mean to me which was the situation here, with all the other safety protocols in the suit it would be a foolish oversight not to build in some kind of protocol for this. Anyway, May was alerted as soon as Karen sent out an alert, she’s safe at the compound, which is when we discovered you were missing Rhodey, if you don’t wear that watch I gave you I can’t keep you safe.” Tony now turned to Rhodey, who was still fighting the pain and nausea from his uncomfortable trip upstairs.

“You mean the watch you gave me to track my every move after I was hurt. I know you want to keep me safe Tony, but I also know you’re paranoid as hell about it. I’m sorry I wasn’t wearing it, but it all turned out okay.” Rhodey was tired and in pain and found himself being irritated unusually quickly.

“If they hadn’t taken the kid to I would have had no leads Rhodey, none. They might not have even got through with the ransom video because I wouldn’t have known to look for it. I hate the fact that they took you, Peter, but dammit Rhodey I’m glad Peter was there to keep you safe and break you out, even if it should have been the other way around.” Tony responded to Rhodey’s irritation badly, just as Rhodey should have known he would and he just felt the guilt at his actions wash over him.

“I’m sorry, Tony. I handled this wrong, all wrong, I just never planned for this kind of scenario if I didn’t have my leg braces. And Peter’s your kid, I should have made his safety more of a priority, kept him with me so I could do my best to protect him, as capable as he is.”

Tony didn’t bother to reply, and the feed flickered out. Rhodey was on the verge of trying to get him back when the unmistakable sound of Iron Man’s repulsors sounded and Tony blasted through the wall to be in the corridor outside. He stepped out of his suit but barely got passed the doorway before he had an armful of enhanced fifteen-year-old.

“It’s good to see you too kid, you okay. You’re not too traumatised?” Tony asked, as he gently pried Peter off him and held the boy at arms length to subtly examine him for any injuries he might have missed.

“Nope. To be honest I barely had time to be scared, I mean it was a little scary, when I woke up in that basement, and Colonel Rhodes wouldn’t wake up, and I couldn’t remember what had happened, and I didn’t even know who Colonel Rhodes was, but then he told me to escape, and explained that because he couldn’t walk, I should try to escape alone and bring back help as soon as possible, so I didn’t really have any time to be scared.” Peter was as bubbly and enthusiastic as ever, if you didn’t know it, you wouldn’t have guessed he had just been kidnapped. Knowing the kid as he did however, Tony saw the slight edge of panic in the kids voice, caught the desperation in the way he had hugged him, and heard the slight lie of the word “little” when it was quite obvious Peter had been terrified.

“Glad to hear it, now I’ve got unmanned suits securing the perimeter, but Pepper would appreciate a welcome, and you’ll be a lot faster than her bringing a spare set of Rhodey’s braces back to the room. You mind going to meet her? She’ll arrive out front.” Tony said gently to Peter.

“Ok, sure, no problem Mr Stark.” Peter said, before hopping out the hole in the wall Tony had made with his Iron Man suit.

“Not through the… there are stairs for a reason… you don’t even have your…” Tony started, but Peter was gone. “Teenagers, what can you do?” He quipped to Rhodey, before giving his best friend his full attention. In a couple of strides, Tony, complete in more than slightly ruffled Armani arrived at Rhodes chair, squatted down in front of it and placed a firm, grounding hand on Rhodey’s shoulder.

“Don’t even think of trying to tell me you’re okay platypus, you’re almost as pale as I am, you look like you could throw up any minute, you keep spacing out and your trembling like a leaf. What did they do to you?” Tony asked, and Rhodes could hear the fear in his voice.

“They doped me up with something, they must have, I have no memory of being taken. I think it will wear off soon, the kid’s already right as rain.”

“The kid currently has a metabolism faster than Captain America’s. It’s gonna effect you more, we’ll take blood samples and test. Anything else?”

“My back injury was jarred, when they brought me upstairs, I don’t think it’s done any further damage but the pain is really bad.” Rhodey admitted, knowing that Tony would just push and push until he got it out of him.

“Dammit Rhodes.” He lowered his head for a moment so Rhodey couldn’t see his expression, then looked up with new found determination in his eyes. “Right, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m sending the kid home in one of the suits, which he will not be piloting, with the excuse that he won’t be back before his curfew otherwise. Then, when he’s left the premises, we’re getting you on that plane via stretcher. If you’re hurting you definitely shouldn’t be doing anything that might aggravate your back even more until we get some scans done. You’ll come back with us on the plane and we’ll make sure nothing else goes wrong, if need be we’ll stop at a hospital in Canada, did you know their healthcare is free? Crazy. And if the doc puts you on bedrest then you’re staying with Pepper and I, no arguments. Visions great, but he doesn’t really understand human needs, not really.” 

Despite the gradually intensifying pain Rhodey almost laughed.

“He’s just like you, you know.” He told Tony.

“Who?”

“The kid, you might not be a blood relative, but in his determination, his cleverness, and his ability to make long fast speeches without taking a breath the kid is just like you.”

“I hope not.” Tony remarked. “I want him to be better.” Rhodes shook his head.

“You’re my best friend, Tony, and yeah sometimes you do stupid shit, which from some of your rants, so does he by the way, but you are the greatest man I know in every sense of the word, and while I hope he will be happier than you’ve been, I’m not sure better is possible.” Rhodey meant every word, but he also knew that without every circumstance, his pain, the fall out after the “Civil War” as the press were calling it, Peter’s healing presence in Tony’s life, and the kidnapping, he might have left it unsaid, and it had gone unsaid for too long.

Tony remained still for the longest time, not looking at Rhodes.

“Right.” He said. “I’ve got to go tell a teenager I’m sending him home before curfew.”

“You don’t think he’ll complain.” Rhodey asked.

“Oh, he’ll be worried about you.” Tony said. “And he’ll want to stay to make sure your okay, but I’m pretty sure the worry he’s causing his aunt and the chance to fly in an Iron Man suit will outweigh any counter argument he has.” And with that Tony disappeared.

In the end Peter was given an all clear immediately, but to Peter’s horror, Rhodey was put on a week of bedrest to recover, which as requested he spent in Tony’s penthouse. What Rhodey had not expected though, was a certain arachnid inspired superhero to spend a couple of hour with him every day after school, cutting down on patrol time significantly which Rhodey knew would be a huge sacrifice for the kid. They spent the time talking, playing games, or on the day when Rhodey’s pain was really bad, Peter just sat in the corner doing homework; but by the end of the week Rhodey really felt like he had become Uncle Rhodey in more ways than just Peter being Tony’s kid.


End file.
